Raggedy Ann's Heart

HE(ART) in progress, watercolor on unfinished wood. Photo ©JoyKreves

Raggedy Ann was thrust into my crib by my older sister, as she exclaimed, "JOY wants that Raggedy Ann doll!"  That doll had just been given to her, and she wanted nothing to do with it.  From my point of view, (perhaps a few years later), Raggedy couldn't help her bright red-colored, cotton yarn hair, her ugly red and white striped tights (I've never been fond of stripes), or her bright red triangle of a nose.  She looked pleasant and peppy, and I did my best to love Raggedy Ann in spite of her clownish appearance.  We had a sort of contract, due to her wearing a heart proclaiming her love for me on her chest.

Classic Raggedy Andy & Raggedy Ann dolls

Do children ever really choose such a doll for themselves or did Ann and her brother doll Andy, become "classics" because grandparents, enamored by the doll's cheery looks and positive message, kept giving them as gifts? I don't know if this is still the case, but at that time each Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy stuffed cloth doll had a red heart shape embroidered right onto their chest, hidden beneath their clothing, along with the words, "I Love You".  (In Raggedy lore this is often described as an actual candy heart.) I don't know if my sister had investigated the doll enough to find the heart, but if she had she might have felt an obligation to return the feeling, like I eventually did.  As the younger sister, I was to be the handy recipient of many hand-me-downs over the following years. Of course this meant I watched her gifts and clothing purchases carefully to see what I might be ending up with. I still hate to see things thrown away and have a hard time weeding out closets.  Somewhere, sometime that doll was discarded though and I don't remember the circumstances of her dismissal.

I think one has to be invested in material things to be an art-maker.  Many artists feel that a material has a sort of "soul" waiting to be released.  I know I've read that the famous woodworker George Nakashima felt that way, as did many renowned stone sculptors.  Many painters start a new work by putting a loose wash on the canvas and then picking out some forms to elaborate on.  There is a nice give and take in this way of working, between the artist's intentions and the material's personality.  That give and take flow is very satisfying.  From the array of possible expressions, there seems to be one most aligned with that canvas, that piece of wood, that stone.

Raggedy Ann's heart was all give.  Give, though, cries out for it's opposite, take.  In an ideal world the flow of give and take would be as equal and symmetrical as the form of that embroidered heart.  The first time I saw a photograph of a real human heart I was very confused!  The purplish, tubey thing did not resemble the graphic heart symbol at all!  I have disliked that boringly symmetrical and grotesquely oversimplified heart symbol ever since.  Encrusted with diamonds,  printed on silk, or cast in porcelain, the heart symbol has held no interest for me.  Which is exactly why I jumped at the chance to make something sale-able out of a wood heart cutout.

Bag full of new art supplies.

My daughter and I were checking out with our pile of art supply goodies at the new Jerry's Artarama on Route 1 in Lawrenceville, New Jersey, last week when the clerk showed us the heart he was painting in bold colors for a fundraiser for Trenton's "Hearts & Stars Annual Silent Auction".  He then invited us to participate by taking wooden hearts to turn into art.  This was a seemingly simple request, but for me it represented a chance to investigate the complexity of my attitudes and perhaps overcome the hurdle that the graphic heart shape has been for me.  "Know thine enemies" whether in the form of person or symbol!  

Actually, the classic heart symbol shape does exist in nature.  Shortly before my mother died I found a large "heart rock" near her house, and then a much smaller one as well.  I did show them to her and we both silently acknowledged their significance.  When I left her for the last time I carried those stones home on the plane and placed the large one in my backyard where I can see it from my kitchen window.  I gave the smaller one to my daughter, who was pretty young at the time.  My heart rock is a symbol of my mother's  presence, seemingly radiating "love" to me from under the tree.

My "mother's" heart rock.

I've discovered that there are lots of people who collect "heart rocks" and it's easy to find examples of those collections on the internet.  Most of the collectors seem thrilled to have found examples of the symbolic shape appearing in nature.  Because of the circumstances surrounding my first heart rock, it was distressing to me when I found another one last week in our back yard.  I laid it near the fence, not hidden but not on display, either.  From Raggedy Ann and Andy's embroidered red hearts to heart-shaped rocks, one agrees to hold meaning in symbols and objects.  I haven't agreed to a meaning for the new rock.  Thus fraught with complicated feelings I begin my journey with the unfinished wood heart.  Love.  Here's to a successful fundraiser!

Unfinished wood heart with fundraiser instructions.